Album Review

For completists, specialists and academics, Document's Complete Recorded Works (1929-1930) is invaluable, offering an exhaustive overview of John Dilleshaw's early recordings. For less dedicated listeners, the disc is a mixed blessing. There are some absolutely wonderful, classic performances on the collection, but the long running time, exacting chronological sequencing, poor fidelity (all cuts are transferred from original acetates and 78s), and number of performances are hard to digest. The serious blues listener will find all these factors to be positive, but enthusiasts and casual listeners will find that the collection is of marginal interest for those very reasons.

Biography

Genre: Country

Years Active: '20s, '30s

Calling John Dilleshaw a bandleader or guitarist doesn't seem quite enough, as fronting groups named Seven Foot Dilly & the Hot Pickles or Dilly & His Dill Pickles seems more like a sheer act of courage, unless one is playing table to table in a deli. Bear in mind, however, that this was the '20s and '30s, the eras of commercially recorded string band music, and even a group that didn't have a corn pone name would wind up acquiring one by the time the instruments were back in the cases at...